


Prom

by Chrystie, kate882



Series: Batdad and his Robins [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Movie Nights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 13:59:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13548801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrystie/pseuds/Chrystie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate882/pseuds/kate882
Summary: Being a Robin sometimes means missing things you want to do because the city needs you. Bruce agrees to watch Mean Girls with Stephanie to make up for her missing her prom.





	Prom

Stephanie had been pretty quiet for most of the patrol, which was decidedly worrying in Bruce's books. She was still fighting just fine, so he knew she wasn't sick, which left him unsure of what the problem was.

“I think I'm just going to go to bed,” she announced after changing in the batcave when they got back, just shoving her phone in her pajama shorts’ pocket rather than trying to catch up on her various social media accounts as she usually did when they got back for the night.

Bruce decided he couldn’t let the depression continue. “Actually Alfred’s set something up in the living room,” Bruce could hear Alfred stopping what he was doing to head upstairs ahead of Steph, “we should at least see what it is.”

“It's one in the morning,” Steph said, like that wasn't an early time to come in from patrol on a Saturday night. “What's he setting up at one am?”

“He said it was a surprise.” Bruce really had to thank Alfred for doing spur of the moment things such as this for him.

“Yeah, but you don't do surprises, so what is it?” She at least looked mildly curious now.

“You’ll just have to go up there and find out.”

She reluctantly followed Bruce up the stairs and to the living room, where Alfred had set out bowls with some of her favorite snacks and the tv was on with Mean Girls pulled up and ready to watch.

“I seem to recall Miss Brown trying a few times to get you to watch this after learning you hadn't seen it,” Alfred told Bruce.

“We’re watching it together?” Stephanie asked him, a bit of excitement creeping into her voice again.

“I suppose we are.” Alfred sure knew how to kill two birds with one stone, managing to find and way to both cheer Stephanie up and punish Bruce for throwing this task at him so suddenly.

“I guess I could wait a bit to go to bed,” she said with a small smile, pulling Bruce towards the couch and pressing play. “Alfred, are you watching too?”

“I'm afraid Master Dick has had me watch it twice already, and so I will be retiring to bed unless either of you needs anything more tonight,” he answered.

“I think we’re fine. Thank you, Alfred.” Bruce sat down and settled in for what was probably the most confusing hour and thirty seven minutes of his life. He just didn’t understand the appeal. Maybe he just wasn’t one for this type of comedy. Stephanie seemed to be cheering up though which was the important thing. Well she was up until they got to the scene that involved the dance. Her smile dimmed and she just looked sad watching it. Bruce briefly remembered Steph mentioning that tonight would be the night of their prom a while back, and that probably explained her odd behavior tonight.

“I don’t understand the point of winning this competition. Is that plastic crown all they get?” Bruce asked in an attempt to distract her from her thoughts.

“It's not about the plastic crown. It's a popularity contest basically. And I guess bragging rights until you do something cooler than getting the majority of the student body to vote you their queen,” she explained, and then glanced over at him. “Did your school not do that? I feel like you would have won prom king.”

“I don’t know; I never went. That was before there was Batman, there had been no point in keeping a flippant facade back then.” He never really understood school dances either. It was a gymnasium filled with awkward teens and unappealing music. He could see that even during his adolescence.

“But-” she frowned at him. “But you still could have gone. You weren't Batman, why would you bail?”

“I wasn’t interested,” Bruce’s eyes softened then, “but you were. I’m sorry you missed it.”

She shrugged, looking down at her hands. “It's part of being a bat, I get it,” she mumbled. “It's why I said no to the cute girl that asked me to go with her,” and that was new, or at least new to Bruce, “even if I didn't have patrol tonight, I'd probably have to leave because something's always happening in Gotham.”

“Yes,” Bruce agreed, because she was right on all those points, “But that doesn’t mean it can’t upset you when you miss an important part of your adolescence.”

She seemed to slump against his side at that. “I don't even want to look at my phone right now because I know all of my nonvilgilante friends are posting about how much fun they had,” she admitted to him.

Bruce put a hand on her shoulder, unsure what else to do. Comfort wasn’t his forte. “There will be other dances.”

“Can we watch another movie?” She asked instead of commenting on that. The credits were currently rolling for Mean Girls. “I promise it won't be Mean Girls 2, that one's not worth it.”

Bruce looked down to her still somewhat crestfallen face and didn’t have to think about his answer. “I suppose another one wouldn’t be too bad.”

She ended up picking High School Musical, another one he hadn't seen, and by the halfway point seemed to have cheered up enough to quietly sing along. They ended up trying to go through all of them, during the second one she even dragged him into a selfie, but not very long into the third one she started to drift off, until she was asleep with her head on his shoulder.

Bruce dutifully turned off the TV and carried her to her room, thankful that unlike the rest of his children, Stephanie didn’t wake up unless someone screamed in her ear or put food in front of her.

* * *

The next morning, while Steph was still sleeping, he was in the kitchen having coffee with Alfred. Well, he was having coffee, Alfred was having tea. “It seems you did a good job cheering up Miss Brown last night,” Alfred commented, sliding a phone across the table to show Bruce Stephanie’s instagram. Where she'd posted the selfie she'd taken with him and captioned it ‘Best Dad ever! We're watching high school musical, can you believe he hasn't seen it??’ This was followed by several emojis.

That made something in Bruce’s chest feel warm, and he could feel a small smile forming on his face. That wasn’t a feeling he was used to. It wasn’t very often any of them referred to him by anything other than his name. It was touching that she viewed him as such, despite the short time she’d been working under him compared to the others. “I’m glad she seems happier, because I didn’t understand why she liked any of those movies.”

“Well they weren’t really for you, sir. Perhaps next time you’re feeling under the weather you can pick the movies,” he said, taking the phone back and sipping at his tea.

“I doubt that but thank you, Alfred.”


End file.
